Spring Gobbler Season Starts Saturday Biologist Predicts Early Days May Be The Most Productive Inside The Outdoors

April 21, 1985|by TOM FEGELY, Sunday Call-Chronicle

On a story assignment in Pike County last week afamiliar sound was heard; a welcome sound that started the adrenaline flowing and the heart pumping faster than normal.

It was the gobble of a wild turkey. Although I didn't see him, his late morning song brought back memories of past spring gobbler seasons and anticipations for next Saturday's spring turkey opener. The bird was persistent in his pronouncements, keeping up the chatter from 10:30 a.m. through noon, at which time I had to leave. Chances are he gobbled all day long.

It brought to mind last May's memorable outing on private lands in Lycoming County. Bob Clark, a well-known turkey hunter from Mechanicsburg, had agreed to try to call in a turkey for my step-daughter, Kelli. Trouble was, Kelli didn't turn 12, the legal hunting age, until the final week of the season.

We were fortunate in gaining an invitation to a sector of forest that hadn't been hunted previously during the gobbler season. The landowner told us of having heard gobblers prior to our arrival. We approached the hunt with optimism but also the obvious cautions that every turkey hunter's experienced. But the morning's activities couldn't have been choreographed any better.

Within the first hour Clark called in a 19-pound bird which he downed, using 3-inch magnum shells in his 12-gauge Remington, from 55 yards. Kelli obediently and attentively witnessed it all at his side. Unfortunately, the wary gobbler was too far off for a killing shot from the 20-gauge Franchi that Kelli was toting on her first hunt, so Clark decided to take advantage of the situation.

After Bob tagged his kill we waited another hour and moved along the same ridge hoping to put "plan B" in motion. That's when we heard another gobbler calling. Within 20 minutes Clark had sweet-talked the bird into sight but it came in to the left of the camouflagedhunters, who had set up shop against a fat stump.

As said, it was one of those rare mornings when everything seemed to come together. Carefully adhering to Bob's whispered instructions, Kelli turned and momentarily rested on the stump, then made a clean head shot on the bird at a distance of 40 yards - quite an accomplishment for a girl on her first hunt (and using a light 20-gauge shotgun).

I was not only fortunate enough to witness both kills but also filmed them from a blind I'd set up about 25 yards behind the hunters.

It will be a day that won't soon be repeated - and certainly one never to be forgotten.

* * *

Last year's gobbler season saw the highest success rates taking place during the last couple weeks, as we substantiated on our Lycoming County outing. But this year, according to Pennsylvania Game Commission biologist Gerry Wunz, some of the best spring gobbler hunting might well be during the early part of the for-week season - a season that gets under way next Saturday morning.

"Last year we had a late spring and hunting was best in the later part of the season," said Wunz in a phone interview earlier this week. "But this spring's different. It's been warmer and the birds are already gobbling in many parts of the state. I expect that it will continue for the next couple of weeks."

Turkey gobblers are fickle creatures, in several ways. For one, they'll perform their vocal mating calls consistently for a week or more, then suddenly remain silent except for a few wake-up notes when alighting from their arboreal perches in the morning. Then, a few days later, the noisy act may start all over again.

They're also fickle in dedicating themselves to a sole hen or even a small flock of them. Once they've mated and the hens scatter to lay eggs, the boss gobblerwill be off in search of other individuals and harems to conquer. That's when they're most readily called to the gun.

"The nesting should be earlier this year than last," said Wunz.

He added: "The dryness won't have much of an effect though. The nesting period depends mainly on temperature and the amount of cloud cover."

Wunz said that the specific region a gobbler patrols during the spring mating season hasn't been studied by game commission biologists. But they do know that a wild turkey isn't as strongly territorial as many other species of birds. Although the biggest gobbler will set up a territory and defend it somewhat from intrusion by other gobblers, it may also permit younger males to be in attendance even though they will not mate with the boss gobbler's hens.

But once a flock is mated and nesting, the gobbler will seek greener pastures. Through personal observation Wunz has discovered that a gobbler may travel as far as two miles a day in search of unmated females. Where the tom was seen and/or heard by a hunter one morning it may not be in residence the next. It's during these nomadic periods that the gobbler is most likely to be called in by a hunter.